Sanken Floppies Line Is Super-Clean -- Successful Disk-Making Firm Likes Location In `Heart' Of Software Industry

Before visitors to Sanken U.S.A. even enter the lobby, they learn first-hand there's something different here.

In the small outer lobby, a sign asks visitors to remove their shoes. Above a closed wooden chest, a sign on the window says simply, "slippers."

The request reflects the Japanese ownership of the company, a joint venture between Sanken Plastics of Japan and Mitsubishi Corp.

And it reflects Sanken's obsession with cleanliness, necessary to make reliable floppies.

"We must have very high cleanliness in the factory," said Kazushige Fujisaki, general manager of the company's planning division.

In Sanken's highly automated factory, assemblers work around- the-clock in a "clean room" atmosphere, after donning dust-proof suits and taking "air showers" to remove any particles that could contaminate the disks.

Sanken, located in the Harbour Pointe industrial park, just south of Mukilteo, was "very aggressively" recruited to Washington, in 1988, by Gov. Booth Gardner, said Kizuki Egashira, executive vice president.

"Our parent companies liked Washington state, because the living standards are higher here than in Oregon," said Egashira, citing a relatively high education level, agreeable weather and frequent nonstop flights between Seattle and Japan as specific attractions.

"The software industry is one of our biggest customers," and Washington is the heart of that industry," he said.

Sanken has been a success. "The micro-floppy-disk market is growing very fast, and we cannot produce enough" to fill all orders, Egashira said.

Sanken plans to double monthly output of floppies this year from 1.2 million to 2.4 million. The company also makes disk parts called subassemblies, and "clamshells," entire floppies lacking only the magnetic media that store information. Those clamshells are sold to other disk manufacturers.

Egashira said clamshells and subassemblies are not profitable for Sanken at the moment, and the company may cut back on those products, as it doubles capacity for full floppies.

He said he expects sales, now about $1 million a month, to reach $1.5 million a month by the end of the year.

Even at twice its present capacity, Sanken will have only a tiny fraction of the world's disk market. He said sales were about 1 billion disks in 1990, rose to 1.5 billion last year and are expected to reach 2 billion this year.

About 60 percent of those are made by about 10 manufacturers in the United States.

You won't find Sanken's brand name on floppy disks at any store. But many no-brand floppies containing commercial software programs - and millions of floppies with brand names like Verbatim, 3M, Maxell and Sony - are made by Sanken.

Nearly half of all floppies Sanken makes are bought by those manufacturers. "Sometimes they need immediate shipment, and they want a second supplier," said Fujisaki. He said Sanken keeps an inventory of 500,000 or more floppies on hand for immediate delivery.

This results in a dual relationship between Sanken and the other disk makers. "Sometimes we are just a friend, and sometimes we are competitors," Egashira said.

Sanken, which has 91 employees, probably will hire another 15 to 20 new assemblers this year, as it expands capacity.

Those assemblers will quickly learn another highly unusual aspect of this company: its working hours.

Needing to keep its factory going 24-hours-a-day, Sanken gave its current 60 assemblers the choice of working "normal" shifts of five eight-hour days a week or working 12-hour shifts with more days off.

"They all chose 12 hours," said Egashira. The shifts begin at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and the employees voted to rotate everybody between days and nights once a month.

Each crew works a rotation of three 12-hour days one week and four days the next week.

Last August, the company asked the assemblers if they wanted to stick with this system or revert to eight-hour shifts.

"Everybody preferred the current system," said Fujisaki.

"They really like those long breaks," said Laurel Benish, assistant manager for personnel.